Cornerstones Community Partnerships

Hands-on Assistance: Cornerstones has developed a nationally-recognized model for involving community members in dynamic, volunteer-driven preservation projects to save historic community buildings. Cornerstones' expert field staff works with communities to plan these projects, offering technical direction and training, while eliciting and supporting local leadership.

Technical Advice: Cornerstones gets many requests each year from communities for assistance in identifying and proposing solutions to common problems facing their historic adobe buildings. A member of Cornerstones' technical staff will visit the site, inspect the building and meet with community caretakers. After the assessment, Cornerstones usually provides the community with a written report, explaining the problems found and recommending solutions.

Youth Training: Recognizing the important role young people play in carrying on cultural traditions, Cornerstones has developed specialized youth training programs. These programs provide youth with marketable job skills and a greater appreciation of their cultural heritage.

Community Workshops: Cornerstones disseminates important technical information regarding the restoration and maintenance of historic buildings to a large number of people very efficiently through one and two day community workshops on various topics of adobe preservation. As a companion tool to the workshops, Cornerstones has published the Adobe Architecture Conservation Handbook.